How to make a prairie doll scarecrow . . .

This doll-sized scarecrow, dressed in antique
calico would give any bossy crow a fright!

      The antique calico for this scarecrow figure makes her look as though she has been warding off crows for a century! Her frightful poppy pod head looks like a dried, old gourd and her rusted tin cans, if real, would clank fiercely while whipping in those prairie winds. I think our Ingles girl dolls would be proud to stake her in their Pa's cornfield!
       This craft may be accomplished with some help from an adult. Older children will be inspired but younger ones will probably be more successful making a paper scarecrow that I included on this blog several years ago.

Supply List:

• one poppy seed pod dried (hollow)
• two skewers
• masking tape
• hot glue
• vintage or antique calico
• small burlap scraps (for hair) use recycled rice bag
• metal tape for mini tin cans (or silver paints)
• 4 or 5 old pencils 
• hack saw
• acrylic paints for facial features and or a black permanent ink marker
• thin wire
• thin jute twine
• small bit of batting 
• scrap cotton for body shaped like a bag

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Poppy seed pods are common enough in the dried flower market place. Once you find one it makes a lovely scarecrow head: make sure you empty the seeds into the trash before making this craft for kids. You can do this with a Exacto knife. Cut a small slit somewhere on the pod that will be covered by a bonnet or hat. The seeds are quite tiny and will easily pass through a narrow incision. Shake the pod over a trash can until you can no longer hear the rattling sound.
2. Cut one skewer to make a cross bar for the pod head to be attached to. You may use hot glue and masking tape to secure the cross brace and pod head on top. Set the rough body aside to then make the detailed can and hair additions. 
3. Parents may use a hack saw to remove the metal band and erasers from four to five pencils. 
4. Make them into convincing tin can miniatures by wrapping these in metallic tape. 
5. Hot glue or tape these onto a thin wire leaving plenty of the wire on each end so that the cans may be strung by twisting them onto either side of the skewer cross bar after dressing the prairie scarecrow figure.
6. Paint on a bit of brown acrylic to age these so that they match the antiquated look of the scarecrow's costume.
7. To craft the wig of the prairie doll, cut a large rectangle from a recycled rice bag. Or, a scrap of burlap fabric alternatively. 
8. Carefully pull the weft from the rectangle scrap to create the wig.
9. Wrap the warp strands into two braids and hot glue these onto the pod. I choose to turn my poppy pod upside down and use the natural 'flower stigma' as the doll's dress collar.
10. Next, cut out a small bag-like shape for the scarecrow torso. Stuff this with a little batting or a couple of cotton balls if you prefer. Glue it over the cross section of the skewer body. Let the crossbar poke through this fabric. 
11. If you want to give your scarecrow arms, now would be the time to attach these to the cross brace. I chose not to however, our bird prevention is much older than a modern variation. 
12. I then, sewed a second bag shaped dress from a long tube of antique calico. It literally shredded as I worked with it! It is that old, folks. But, given this scarecrow should be scary, I thought "the more shredding . . . the spookier!"
13. I shaped a rough bonnet for my prairie doll with a square of calico and a few straight stitches. Then hot glued it in place over the braided wig. 
14. Then I twisted the tin cans over the skewer cross bar and hot glued a raffia bow to her back.
15. To draw a face like mine you can use a permanent ink pen. 
16. Paint the whites of her eyes, her rosy cheeks and triangle nose using acrylic paints.
17. Lastly, tie on or hot glue her directly to the second skewer leaving a long length of it to stick into the ground of your doll's pretend corn field!

Left, the metal eraser tips have been cut off of pencils to make miniature cans. Right, wrap
these 'tin cans' with metal tape to make them appear as convincing cans. Paint them with
rust or brown paints to give these a bit of age. You can see the wire above also attached
with tape. Now the scarecrow will make noise and reflect light in order to ward off
hungry crows form our pretend corn fields!

I recycled the burlap from a rice bag to make this prairie doll scarecrow's wig. See another craft
made from the same recycled material here.

Left, the stuffed body bag underneath my doll's costume. Center, the doll's costume completed.
Right, a detailed photo of the rusty old tin cans attached to our scarecrow's waist. These
clank and clatter in the wind to reflect light and make noise that will theoretically 
scare away crows. 

Left a close-up photo of the scarecrow's facial featured applied with permanent ink pen
drawing and acrylic painted cheeks, nose and eyes. Right, is the raffia bow hot-glued
on to the backside of the scarecrow.

Find many more prairie crafts at the camp page listing here . . .

Winsome wisdom from Pa about Halloween spooks and pranks...

Video by Little House T.V. series at Youtube.